PHILADELPHIA — Danny Briere, Matt Read and Max Talbot each scored two goals to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to an 8-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday in a fight-filled Game 3 in the first-round series.
Wayne Simmonds and Claude Giroux also scored to help the Flyers take a 3-0 lead in the combustible best-of-seven Eastern Conference series. Game 4 is Wednesday night in Philadelphia.
The goals might be hard to find on a highlight reel. This one was all about the brawls more suitable for a UFC card. Three players were tossed in the first period. There was a rare fight between superstars when Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby squared off against Giroux.
Jordan Staal and James Neal scored twice for a Penguins team pushed to the limit by its hated, intrastate rival. Marc-Andre Fleury was benched after allowing six goals in two periods. He has allowed a whopping 17 goals in the first three games.
KINGS 1, CANUCKS 0
LOS ANGELES — Jonathan Quick made 41 saves, Dustin Brown scored on a long rebound with 13:30 to play, and eighth-seeded Los Angeles pushed Vancouver to the brink of elimination.
Brown’s fourth goal of a stellar series put the Kings one win away from their first playoff series victory since 2001. He also put the two-time Presidents’ Trophy-winning Canucks on the edge of a shocking playoff departure.
Quick hung on for his second career playoff shutout after setting a club record with 10 in the regular season, and the Kings snapped a five-game playoff losing streak at Staples Center in front of a sellout crowd starved for playoff success.
Game 4 is Wednesday night.
PREDATORS 3, RED WINGS 2
DETROIT — Shea Weber turned boos into silence with a goal early in the first period and Nashville held on to beat Detroit to take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference series.
Henrik Zetterberg scored with just under a minute left to pull the Red Wings within one, but they couldn’t tie the game to force overtime.
Weber, jeered for smashing Zetterberg’s face into glass at the end of Game 1, snapped Nashville’s 0-for-12 streak on the power play against the Red Wings.
Kevin Klein and Sergei Kostitsyn also scored for Nashville, and Pekka Rinne made 41 saves. Pavel Datsyuk added a goal for Detroit.
Game 4 is Tuesday night in Detroit.
PANTHERS 4, DEVILS 2
SUNRISE, Fla. — Stephen Weiss scored the first two playoff goals of his 10-year NHL career, Jose Theodore stopped 23 shots and Florida won a playoff game for the first time in nearly 15 years, beating New Jersey even the Eastern Conference series at a game apiece.
Marcel Goc had a goal and an assist for the Panthers, who survived a frantic Devils rally in the third.
Travis Zajac and Ilya Kovalchuk scored in the first 2:02 of the third period, and Martin Brodeur made 20 saves for New Jersey.
Tomas Fleischmann had an empty-net goal as time expired and Florida fans littered the ice with hundreds of toy rats — a tradition that dates to the Panthers’ run to the 1996 Stanley Cup finals.
Game 3 is Tuesday night in New Jersey.
